The Zen of Minimalist Fiction

Minimalism. Simply put, minimalism is stripping of an artistic work down to its most fundamental features. A word, a plain statement, that in which one understands exactly what the author is trying to portray without bells and whistles. The teachings of Zen are much like that of minimalism. Zen's basis is about understanding the true essence, or the most fundamental feature of things, so to speak. In this essay, I hope to show how minimalism in fiction and the teachings of Zen are more similar than you would think.

Let us delve into the definitions of these two entities. Minimalism in fiction is generally characterized by a focus on 'surface detail' and is more of a portrayal of everyday life rather than fantasy or over the top novelization. An example of an minimalist author is Raymond Carver, who is the author of 'Cathedral' and 'A Small, Good Thing' we have read so far. Raymond Carver lived from 1938 to 1988 and was born in Oregon. He explains his works as minimalistic partially due to a seeming lack of a detail-oriented memory; 'the kind of memory that can bring entire conversations back to the present complete with all the gestures and nuances of real speech' . Whatever the case may be, Raymond Carver has been a poster child of minimalist fiction. He has said 'I put the furnishings and the physical things surrounding the people into the stories as I need those things', also 'Nothing more than a working marriage of necessity and convenience' which makes his brand of minimalism a great comparison to Zen teachings.